


the fundamental things apply

by skitzofreak



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, I'm back on my consent soapbox, Miscommunication, Mission Fic, Pining, Pre-Relationship, Tumblr Prompt, and very much wanted groping, but a happy ending, heavy make out session, more like a happy beginning, more or less, rated for language, rated for sexual content, rated for unwanted groping, smooching for the cause!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2019-04-07 15:07:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14083602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skitzofreak/pseuds/skitzofreak
Summary: Cassian’s arm around her waist tightened, pulling her flush against his body, and Jyn closed her eyes at the sudden heat and pressure around her waist and between her legs. Really, really good at pretending, apparently. “Jyn,” Cassian said directly into her ear, his voice low and rough, his hand tight in her hair and against her lower back.  “Do you trust me?”Oh,hells.





	the fundamental things apply

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thereigning_lorelai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thereigning_lorelai/gifts).



> For [@thereigning-lorelai](http://thereigning-lorelai.tumblr.com/), who sent this request/prompt into the [Rebelcaptain Smut Weekend](https://rebelcaptainsmutweekend.tumblr.com/):
> 
> _i've thought a lot about how i could request the following, because i want to make sure that consent is still, you know, A THING. that said, i'd love to see jyn and cassian (pre-relationship) going undercover and having to get it on (not all the way, but slightly more than just kissing) to not blow their cover. of course, sexual tension and a lot of pining ensues afterwards_
> 
> (The title of the fic is from the lyrics of [As Time Goes By](http://www.reelclassics.com/Movies/Casablanca/astimegoesby-lyrics.htm))  
> I'm still not great at the "afterwards" part, but I really liked the whole challenge of writing a "forced make-out" that still had consent involved in some way. Hope I made it work.

Jyn was a better liar than most people seemed willing to credit her, kept alive by years of both running deception ops for Saw and then surviving among the smugglers, grifters, and conmen of the galaxy’s seediest underworlds. But even she had fucking _limits_ , and if this greasy piece of bantha fodder ran his thick, ring-covered fingers down the curve of her ass one more time, she was going to snap them all in half.

Which would, she reminded herself sternly as she adjusted her heavy leather jacket and tried _once again_ to discretely step out of the mark’s reach, blow the entire operation, lose the Alliance the desperately needed credits the mark was offering, and very likely get both Jyn and her partner killed.

That last thought steeled her resolve more than the rest. She and Cassian had been through entirely too much to risk death at the hands of a low-life who groped people in bars and wore way too much jewelry. So when the Shiny Fool grinned at her and sidled closer with a wink, Jyn grit her teeth and mentally calculated all the ways she could hurt him using nothing but his ridiculous decorations (the gold rings on his fingers would only make his knuckles easier to break, the crisscrossing jeweled wrist-bands could be grabbed and twisted, allowing her perfect control of his arms, and that heavy gold chain around his neck – perfect garrote).

The datapad in Shiny Fool’s other hand beeped suddenly. “There it is,” he said cheerfully, leaning against her side and handing her the pad. “Transfer complete, and signatures logged. Nice doing business with you, darling.”

Jyn smiled blandly at him, resisting the intense desire to let her lips peel back and her eyes narrow into a snarl. She took the datapad and clipped it neatly into her belt. “Thanks,” she said, grateful that the noise of the packed club disguised some of the strain in her voice. “Our company will be in touch.”

“Hey, hey, hold up a bit!” Shiny Fool laughed and slipped his arm around her waist. “What’s the rush, darling? We just closed a good deal, we should celebrate! Come on, let me buy you a drink.”

Jyn took a long, slow breath and relaxed her shoulders, her jaw, her eyebrows, releasing the tension to settle her irritated expression into a neutral state. It was a useful trick, one she had learned a long time ago but mostly discounted as less useful than just punching the source of her irritation. Cassian’s complete mastery of the technique, however, had impressed her more than once, and Jyn was determined that if he could do it, then so could she.

Also, they might still lose the contract, the credits, and their lives if she wasn’t very careful.

“No thanks,” she said as casually as she could muster, ignoring Shiny Fool’s manicured fingernails picking coyly at the seams of her back pocket. “I have to meet someone.”

“Another business contact?” Shiny Fool attempted a mock pout that mostly just turned into a leer. “Careful, darling, you’ll make me jealous. Unless that was the intent?” He waggled an eyebrow, and Jyn sincerely wished he hadn’t. Her fists curled before she remembered herself and forced them straight again.

“No.”

“You don’t mean that bodyguard who walked in with you, the Outer Rim nerf herder, right?” Shiny Fool jerked his head over to the far end of the cantina, where Cassian was sitting just visible in the shadows of the bar, his head tilted back against the wall and his visible hand curled loosely around the cheap beer bottle in front of him. His eyes were half-closed, his expression shuttered, and from this distance, he looked more likely to topple out of his seat rather than keep an important client safe. Jyn understood Shiny’s contempt – her ‘bodyguard’ looked like a low-rent merc stuck with a boring job because he needed the cash, hardly the type to worry a reasonably well-off merchant with several shady ties to the local smuggling rings. “Don’t worry, darling, we’ll stay right here in the bar,” the Shiny Fool laughed and gestured to the nearest bartender, raising his voice as a throbbing drumbeat began to pulse from the club speakers. “He can keep an eye on you, and we can have a little fun, hm?” His rings were pressing into the curve of her ass as he slipped his hand fully into her back pocket.

“I’m still not interested,” Jyn said flatly, turning sharply sideways. The move jerked his hand from her pocket, but unfortunately turned her body almost fully towards the jackass (the wealthy, well-connected jackass, that part was _important_ ). The man’s leer, far from turning disappointed, seemed to settle deeper on his face. Jyn’s stomach sank – she’d met these kind of people before. Convinced of his superiority, convinced that his wealth or style or mannerisms made him so attractive that no one would ever really turn them down, the kind of person who would be utterly convinced that she secretly wanted to screw him no matter how loudly she protested. Jyn had always found that a solid blow to their face, or their solar plexus, or in some justified occasions, their crotch, usually got the message through. Unfortunately, in this case, the Alliance needed this fool’s money, and Jyn needed to prove that she could handle pressure like this, the kind that couldn’t be solved with a pipe truncheon.

“Wow, that’s pretty harsh.” The mark’s voice was less cajoling now, more of a snigger than a leer. “I’m just offering to buy you a drink. Just being friendly. What, you don’t like when men try to be nice to you, darling?”

Over Shiny Fool’s well-dressed shoulder, Cassian’s eyes gleamed faintly in the neon lights of the club.

Jyn blinked, and then smiled, trying hard to look apologetic (and missing by a mile, but Shiny Fool was far too much the fool to notice). “Sorry to be rude,” she half-shouted over the rising beat of the new song. She shrugged, as if embarrassed. “It’s just that I have to go meet my boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend?” Shiny Fool shook his head, leaning on the bar between her and the rest of the club, partially cutting off her possible retreat. His smile turned sardonic, an edge of unfriendliness curdling it. The Alliance needed his business, she reminded herself. Fuel, food, bacta, boots – it was all expensive, and all hard to buy in bulk without the Empire breathing down the purchaser’s neck. This bejeweled jackass had an abundance of all those things, and connections to people who had more. The Alliance needed his business. The Alliance needed his business. “Why do women always play that game?” He shook his head.

Jyn forced her own face to stay as pleasant as possible.  “Game?”

“If you’ve got a _boyfriend_ here, darling,” Shiny Fool laughed again, the disbelieving laugh of a bully who has found a weakness, “prove it.”

If she didn’t, his expression told her, he would punish her somehow. His eyes flicked to her datapad. He would, she realized. He really would turn on the Alliance to get ‘revenge’ on a woman who rejected him.

Her rage flared up, so hot and high that for a moment she could so vividly see her fist connecting with his well-groomed chin, could so clearly feel the crunch of his bone against her knuckles, that Jyn felt a small jolt of concern that she had actually lashed out and ruined the whole deal. But then she blinked, and the fantasy faded, leaving her face to face with the smug smile of a man who thought he had won the argument.

Jyn shrugged again, but there was no apology in this gesture. “Alright.” And then she shoved past the mark, only managing to stop herself from stomping on his foot at the last moment.

Cassian watched her as she strode around the bar, and the weight of his gaze almost cancelled out the pin-prick sensation of Shiny Fool leering at her back. The club music was so loud now that Jyn could barely hear herself think, the throbbing beat shuddering down her spine in time to the flashing blue and gold lights of the nearby dance floor. The light hit Cassian’s profile at a strange angle, throwing half his face into shadow, the other half into bright gold relief.  His eyes tracked her as she walked up, but he made no other move. Despite his languid appearance, up close Jyn could see that his knuckles were white around the beer bottle and his other hand was very firmly inside his dark coat, probably clutching a blaster. She hoped his tension was just from the crowd around them, and not because he was worried she was blowing the mission objectives.

She hoped he would understand what she was about to do.

He would understand. He would help her, for the mission, if nothing else, but also because he was her friend and her partner. At the least, he would forgive her for this. He had to. They’d been through too much together for him to throw her over now.

She swallowed around the sudden lump in her throat, her steps slowing unconsciously as she realized the magnitude of what she was going to risk, all for the sake of a stupid contract with a self-absorbed asshole and a few credits.

Jyn glanced back over her shoulder to see the fool still watching her, his eyebrows raised in frank disbelief. The sight reignited her self-righteous rage, and when she turned back around, Cassian had lifted his head from the wall, his eyes still half-closed but focused on her with such intense ferocity that she almost shivered.

Jyn wiped her clammy hands on her hips and threw her thigh over Cassian’s, straddling his lap as if she belonged there. She twined her arms around his shoulders and took care to lean down between the watching mark and Cassian’s face to hide any sign of surprise in his expression, a move that by necessity brought her mouth close to his ear.  She felt him go tense under her, his chest jerking slightly as he sucked in a sudden breath, but beyond that he didn’t so much as flinch. Either he had amazing self control, or she had stunned him with her brazen move. Maybe both. Jyn brushed her lips against his ear, unsure if the throbbing in her head was the powerful bassline or her own racing pulse. Under her legs, Cassian was as still as a carved statue.  _I need you to play along_ , she meant to say, _he suspects me of lying and might do something stupid_ , but what came out instead was an oddly breathless, “Do you trust me?”

For an agonizing second, Cassian didn’t respond, and Jyn almost pulled away, contract be damned, Alliance logistics could just find something else to keep the lights on and the bellies full –

And then his hand slid up her back to trace a line against the skin above the collar of her jacket, which was suddenly far, far too heavy for the surprisingly warm atmosphere of this club. Cassian’s right hand pulled free from his jacket, and he wrapped it without comment around her waist. He turned his head just enough so she could feel his mouth against her cheek. “What do you need?” he asked in a low voice that somehow still cut through the heavy thumping of the music and the chatter of the crowd. His beard scraped her skin gently as his hard jawline brushed against her in time to his words.

A dozen different responses, each more embarrassing than the last, flitted through her head before Jyn managed to corral her idiot brain into some sort of coherency. “An alibi,” she croaked at last.

“Ah,” she felt him sigh more than she heard it, his chest rising and falling against her, his head tilting to glance over her shoulder at their audience. “I see.” His hand moved from her collar up to her hair, and deftly he twisted his finger up under the band, loosening her hair without letting it fall entirely free. Before she could ask what he was doing, he slipped his fingers into the now-loose strands and scraped his nails lightly against her scalp. Tiny shocks of pleasure crackled down her scalp and neck, making her gasp before she could catch it. “You like that?” Cassian asked, his voice oddly thick. It was probably just the distortion of the club noise, she thought hazily, tilting her head down to grant him better access. Or he was just…really good at pretending. Well, she already knew that.

Cassian’s arm around her waist tightened, pulling her flush against his body, and Jyn closed her eyes at the sudden heat and pressure around her waist and between her legs. Really, _really_ good at pretending, apparently. “Jyn,” Cassian said directly into her ear, his voice low and rough, his hand tight in her hair and against her lower back.  “Do you trust me?”

Oh, _hells_.

“I - ” Jyn stumbled over awkward words, and turned her face against the curve of his shoulder. Her throat was too tight to speak, her heart so fast that she felt light headed. She fisted her hands in his coat between his shoulder blades and nodded against his shoulder.

“He’s still watching,” Cassian told her. His hand slipped under her jacket and tugged carefully at her shirt tucked into the back of her trousers until it came free, and then he slid his hand under the fabric. The callouses on his hands scratched against the skin at the base of her spine, and Jyn – telling herself that it was to sell the con, it was all to save the Alliance or whatever – Jyn arched her back in response to his touch. The move curved her against him, and she could feel him reacting, a tiny shiver in his thighs beneath her, a building pressure between her legs.

That was fine, of course. She wasn’t exactly completely unaffected either, not with Cassian’s hand caressing her bare spine, not with his fingers combing so sweetly through her hair, not with his heat so completely enveloping her, it was all just – it was – they were only – Jyn untangled one hand from Cassian’s coat and cupped the side of his face, fitting her palm along the line of his jaw. She couldn’t bring herself to lift her head and look at him, but the roughness of his stubble under her fingertips helped to ground her a little more – with her hand against his face, she could tell that his head still turned to peer over her shoulder across the bar, although probably not in any way that the Shiny Fool could see. She ran her thumb in a small circle against his cheek, and felt the muscle stretch slightly into a small smile; she smiled against his neck in response, and for a moment it all felt like an inside joke, laughing at the ignorant world around them. Jyn stroked his cheek again and smiled into the warm, safe space they had created with their bodies, with their understanding. _Partner_ , she thought, and then, _Cassian_.

As if he could hear her, Cassian laughed softly. And then he slid his hand out of her shirt (and she instantly felt cold where his skin had been pressed to hers) and then kept sliding downward. If Jyn hadn’t been so… _muddled_ , she might have laughed as she recognized the way he traced a line over the curve of her ass, over the seams where Shiny Fool had prodded and tugged her, and then her partner tucked his hand into her back pocket, squeezing lightly but possessively. But the move also pulled her lower body tighter against his, and Jyn rolled a little with the motion, grinding down against him before she could think better of it.

Cassian made a noise in his throat too low for her to hear over the booming music, but she was pressed close enough to him that she could feel it vibrate through her cheek. The sensation sent more of those little sparks dancing through her body, and Jyn caught herself wondering if the alley behind this club was secure enough from the street to risk pulling him out there.

Shit. She was getting too involved in this farce, confusing a ruse to throw off a bitchy mark with something _real_. She needed to end this, before she did something truly stupid like ask Cassian to…oh, fuck, he bit lightly along the line of her throat, just over the collar of her jacket, and Jyn’s mind went pleasantly blank and a little wild.

Right. That was…that was probably enough. Shiny Fool refuted. Contract saved. Alliance had boots. Money. The stuff in the contract.

Jyn sat up abruptly, and bit her lip at the way it changed the angle of her body against his. Cassian’s hands tightened in her hair and against her ass, obviously feeling it too. Jyn looked down at him, and took a bare second to admire the way his eyes caught the gold and blue strobing lights, how the tension in his face and body had somehow transmuted from nerves to…to something else. Something she couldn’t name, but liked better.

Jyn looked him right in the eye. “I’m going to kiss you.”

Cassian ran his tongue across his lower lip, a quick motion that she was almost sure was just a slight nervous tic and not a move calculated to turn the heat in her belly molten. Unintentional or not, she felt her legs tighten around him, an instinctive attempt to press her thighs together. “Your call,” he said at last, and Jyn didn’t give herself time to overthink it. She just had to sell a fake boyfriend to a mark, she’d done shit like this before. Just a quick kiss, and then they could get out of here without fear of the mark calling the Imps on them or reneging on his bargain.

She was so determined to just _get it over with_ before she made a fool of herself that Jyn came in too hard, shoving her mouth so hard and rough against Cassian’s that the edge of her teeth clicked a little painfully against his. He rocked back, startled and off balance. Mentally cursing at herself, Jyn yanked herself away – shit, well, this had probably been enough, she could have stuck the landing a bit more gracefully but it wasn’t like intimacy was her area of expertise – but Cassian’s hand tightened against her scalp again, and he pulled her firmly back down before she could wiggle off his lap.

“Try again?” he whispered against her lips, and then –

And then he was kissing her, slow and sweet, like he had all the time in the world to trace his tongue along the edge of her bottom lip and lick softly into her gasping mouth, like he was savoring the taste of her. His fingertips drew light, delicate spirals just behind her ear, and he held her so tightly against him that she could feel his every shiver and gasp as well as her own.

No one had ever kissed her like this.

For several long, breathless seconds, Jyn was at the hot center of the galaxy, and all the stars swirled around her and the man who held her like she was the most important person to ever walk among them.

Cassian pulled away, a tiny movement, only a few narrow centimeters opening between them, but Jyn wanted so badly to lean back across the gap that it frightened her, a sliver of cold fear crystalizing in her chest despite the inferno Cassian had ignited everywhere else in her body. It was an act, after all. Just an act. His arm pinning her lower body against his (and yes, she could feel his arousal against her lower belly and cunt, but that was just biology, no more controllable than the rush of heat under her skin where he touched her) – his arm around her body was an act. The kiss was just his response to her demand. She’d needed an alibi, and he was a spy, a damn good one, so he’d provided it.

Jyn dared to look at his face, and caught his eyes shifting from over her shoulder back to her. Checking on the mark, making sure it had worked. It hit her like a cold bucket of water over her head. It _had_ been an act. Everything Cassian had just done had been to convince the mark that they were together – and it wasn’t his fault if he’d done it thoroughly enough that she had nearly fallen for it, too.

Jyn shoved off his lap, so fast that he jumped, his hand catching awkwardly in her hair until she jerked her head and pulled free. “Sorry,” he mouthed, blinking in surprise and shaking a few strands of her hair from his hand that had torn free with her abrupt movement. Jyn shook her head at him, ignoring the faint sting in her scalp. She risked a glance over her shoulder and saw that Shiny Fool had turned his back on them both, and seemed deeply invested in a conversation with a Twi’lek who played idly with her drink and nodded vaguely.

Wonderful. Guess that had worked.

Now they just had to get out, get to the ship, and then…

And then she would have to pretend like nothing had happened here. Because it _hadn’t_. Jyn grit her teeth and turned back around, looking for the alternate exit they had scouted earlier in the operation, the one that didn’t require walking past Shiny and risking his attention again. To her mixed surprise and guilt, Cassian was already walking toward it, his long coat pulled tight around himself despite the heat of the crowded club, his head bent, his shoulders rigid. He looked – oh, _ky’r'am en nau_ , he looked pissed off, stalking through the dancing, laughing, blue-and-gold crowd, a dark ripple in the colorful sea of civilians.

Jyn followed, but she couldn’t bring herself to walk up beside him, didn’t quite dare to meet his eyes. What if she did, and saw that his anger really was directed at her?

Well, she had asked for it. She had more or less jumped him, and all because she hadn’t been able to extract herself from the Shiny Fuckhead and his grabby hands without jeopardizing the objectives.

He was probably going to fume at her for awhile over this one. Not that Cassian _fumed_ , necessarily. He would just get hyperfocused on the tasks at hand, speaking very little and avoiding her as much as the small ship they had brought allowed, only snarling at her if she pushed him. That was what he did when he was upset with people – or so she had observed in the few months she had known him. She hadn’t experienced it herself since…her gut twisted as she recalled the last time Cassian had been angry with her, cold and dripping with the icy rain of Eadu, mud in her shoes and her father’s blood crusting under her fingernails as they lashed out at one another in the dim lights of the stolen Imperial shuttle.

Jyn followed Cassian out of the club’s discrete side door and fought the wave of nausea that rolled inside her that had nothing to do with the rank air of the city rolling over them.

He paused at the entrance to the alley, clearly waiting for her to catch up, but he kept his hands deep in his pockets, his eyes focused outward at the streets, and never said a word until they were climbing the ramp of their ship and closing the hatch behind them.

“No tail,” he said in a tight, controlled voice. “Sweep for bugs. I’ll prep the engines.”

Jyn nodded, shooting him a sideways glance that he either missed or ignored. His face was completely neutral, which was worse than a scowl, worse than open anger, because she couldn’t gauge how bad it was, how deeply he really felt about her….her _violation_ , she realized, and somehow managed to feel even worse than she had before. She’d made kissing her a necessary part of operational success, and he had done what he had to do to get what the Alliance needed.

He spun on his heel and marched away without waiting for her reply, and Jyn stood like a complete moron in the cargo hold and watched him vanish around the corner, then stood a little longer listening to him move around the cockpit just out of sight.

The worst of it, she thought, was that she could still feel the lingering sensation of his hands on her skin. She could still taste him on her tongue. She could still feel the hard lines of his body arching and trembling against hers, for fuck’s sake.

And even knowing that he was angry with her, she still wanted to slide back into his lap and finish what they had started.

No. What _she_ had started, and he had played along with, because she forced the issue.

Jyn swept the ship for bugs. When she was done, she sent a short “clear” message over the comm to Cassian, and then switched her comm off before he could respond. The ship engines whined and the walls shook as the ship lifted off immediately, which told her that he had heard.

Jyn locked down the security console, and then she went to pace in the small cabin in the back of the ship with the lights off and the door shut, because there was nothing else to do for the next ten hours. Because there was nowhere else to go where he wouldn’t have to deal with her. Because she had just fucked up the most important relationship she had left in the damn galaxy and there was nothing she could do to fix it.

She could try, though. Jyn strode back and forth in the narrow confines of the cabin, clenching and unclenching her fists, occasionally slamming her balled up fist sideways into the confining walls. She could – she could apologize. She could tell him that she got caught up in the con. She could promise to take some of those training seminars for rookie spooks, maybe. It would suck – the instructors were two old spies from the days of the Old Republic who had survived some of the nastiest ops of the Clone Wars and had a tendency to equate pain with “real” learning. They also had a distinct dislike of Saw and his Partisans, which meant they would probably look at Jyn as little better than a feral stray. But if it showed Cassian that she really was sorry, that she knew where she had messed up and was willing to be better in the future – maybe he wouldn’t request that she be removed from the roster as his partner. Maybe he wouldn’t look at her with disgust curling his lip and fury in his eyes like he had after Eadu -

Jyn reached the wall of the cabin and smashed the side of her fist against it harder than before, making the little storage cabinet rattle. She grimaced – punching the metal bulkhead straight on would be the height of stupidity, but if she didn’t hit something, she was probably going to explode into a messy splatter of rage and humiliation and -

A light rap at the door, and then Cassian called through the door, “Jyn?”

She stopped in mid-step, light-headed again, her stomach clenching and her hands automatically curled into tight fists.

Stupid, she snarled at herself. Falling all to pieces because someone might be mad at her. Silly, scared little girl hiding in the dark.

She spun on her heel and slapped the door switch, bracing her feet and forcing her chin high. Yeah, alright, she was an asshole and she owed him an apology, and if he wanted to yell at her for it, then she could take it. But she would not hide.

She would not cry.

Cassian had shed the long coat, but his hands were still in his pockets, and he was staring at the deck when the door slid open. Jyn searched his face, but the expression on it was unreadable, not exactly neutral – deep in thought, the way he looked when faced with a particularly complex piece of droid tech or a file full of contradictory information. His lips were pressed thin together and his eyebrows furrowed, and his hair was surprisingly disheveled, as if he had pushed his hands through it (like he had pushed his hands through hers, but Force damn her twice over, she was not going to dwell on that because _it_ _hadn’t been real_ ).

He looked tired and pensive and beautiful, and Jyn bit the inside of her lip to remind herself that she could not kiss him. But she could, if she was very lucky, still be his partner.

She hunted for the right words, swallowing around the fear in her throat. Nothing came to mind, but she had to try, so she opened her mouth and hoped for the best.

“I’m sorry,” he said into the silence, and Jyn snapped her jaw closed again, staring at him.

“I shouldn’t have - ” he paused, took a long, deep breath, and then resolutely raised his eyes to look at her. “I pushed it too far,” he said evenly. “I’m sorry, Jyn. I will understand if you want to apply for a different partner.” He said it like it was the worst punishment she could throw at him. His jaw was tight, his shoulders set, his whole body braced as if for a blow, and the words came slow and harsh as if he were dragging them out one by one, but he looked her right in the eye as he said it anyway.

And just like that, Jyn understood.

Oh.

_Oh._

“I don’t,” she said quietly, her head spinning and her heart beating quick and light inside her chest again. “I don’t want a different partner.”

He didn’t move, just stood there with his hands balled into fists in his pockets and looked at her like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. She glanced down the rigid, miserable lines of his body, saw that he was still waiting for the blow.

“Cassian,” she said slowly, stepping forward and reaching up to cup her hand around his face along his jaw again, tracing a small circle over the rough stubble there. He didn’t smile this time, though the shadows on his face cleared a little, and in his eyes there was a spark of hope. “I was going to apologize to you,” she confessed, and the absurdity of it all bubbled in her chest and tugged at her mouth. Jyn struggled not to laugh, because as unbalanced as she felt right now, it would probably come out hysterical and ridiculous.

“What?” he blinked, pulling one hand from his pocket to grab her wrist, holding her hand against his face as he stared at her. The neutrality was gone from his expression, replaced with naked astonishment and ( _maybe_ , if she wasn’t completely misreading him, maybe a hint of desire). “ _Why?_ ”

“For pushing too far,” she shrugged at him, and ran her thumb across his cheek again, smiling as the corner of his mouth quirked up in response.

“That’s…” he trailed off, clearly at a loss.

“Stupid,” Jyn finished firmly.

“I think,” he paused, closed his eyes, then shook his head, turning his face to press a little harder against her palm. “Are we…okay?” He opened his eyes and looked at her with such sudden intensity that Jyn felt the sparks burning under her skin again, the phantom sensation of his hands on her body back with full force. “Jyn,” he shifted his weight with an odd, jerky motion, caught between a clear desire to move closer and a desire not to push into her space. “Are we okay?”

“Yeah,” she grinned, and traced her thumb over the dimple that appeared in his cheek as he smiled back, “’Course.”

“Okay,” he licked his lips again, that small darting motion that made her insides tighten and her skin burn, but everything felt entirely too raw and fragile to move, to do anything at all that might chase away the soft look in Cassian’s eyes. “Okay. Good.”

Jyn nodded, and dropped her hand, watching with interest how reluctantly his fingers loosened around her wrist before he let her go. Noting that Cassian saw her watching.

“I should send back word,” he said carefully. “About the contract.”

Jyn nodded. “Right. Mission complete. Objective achieved.”

“Right.”

He stepped back again, still watching her face. “Good work,” he said, and then coughed a little as she choked on a laugh.

“Yeah,” she cleared her throat. “You too.”

His smile this time was more sardonic than sweet, and he scrubbed a hand over his face as if to wipe away any embarrassment or awkwardness.

“Maybe,” she said abruptly, “later - ”

“Yes,” he agreed after a moment, and half-turned back to the cockpit. “Later. If – if you want.”

Jyn darted forward and grabbed his shirt with both hands, rising up on her toes and pressing a kiss to the underside of his jaw. He drew in a sharp breath, his hands automatically catching her shoulders and pulling her closer, but she twisted neatly out of his grip and danced back as quickly as she’d moved in. “Go send the report, Captain,” she said firmly, but the corner of her mouth refused to stay down, and his answering smile made it even harder to force her unruly face into order.

Jyn went back into the cabin and closed the door, flicking on the light this time and sitting down on the narrow bunk. She had her own report to write, after all.

And just as soon as she could breathe properly again, she would write it.

Outside the door, she heard nothing but silence for several seconds, and then a light slap against the bulkhead, like someone hitting his hand against the hull, and then footsteps away to the cockpit. And, if she listened carefully, the faint sound of someone humming under his breath.


End file.
